Mobile app + TinCan content : troublesome 'cannot connect' errors.
Feb 07, 2013
Dear all
I made a small course, exported it for LMS with Tincan tracking set, zipped it and uploaded into Rustici Scorm Cloud. It plays fine when started from there. I can also start it from the Storyline iOS player but it gives me "unable to connect to the server' errors no matter what I do. Obviously I am connected to the Internet. I search the support forums, all I read is I should contact the LRS supplier to update / fix their LRS. I don't think Rustici has a non-conformant LRS.
I am ignoring the parser warning I get from Scorm Cloud, it's only about relative Activity ID. However, I cannot show this course I built to a client with these errors. I'm suspecting the path settings to the endpoint, but no matter what I try, the errors keep coming. I must surely not be the only one with this issue, esp. now that Rustici's is still about the only LRS that you can experiment with.
Any fixes for this?
26 Replies
Welcome to E-Learning Heroes, Rose!
I'm not sure if you've seen this information, already, but I wanted to share it just in case.
If you're hosting Tin Can API content in your LMS (rather than an external server) but your LMS doesn't yet support private content authorization for mobile apps, you'll encounter a "Cannot Access Content" error message when attempting to launch the content in the Articulate Mobile Player app for iPad. Use either of the following options to correct it:
Click here for more information on this error message.
If you've confirmed that the LMS supports the content, we'd be happy to take a look at the course for you.
Thanks!
Christine,
Rose and I am having nearly the same issue. It is not a problem to launch and view the content from the mobile app, and an earlier post on this forum states that Rustici does now support private content authorization for mobile apps. I get occassional Connect to Server errors that appear during the playback of content in the mobile app, those clear up with a Retry and often do not appear at all. But when it is time to submit results the Connect to Server error never resolves on Retry and I can only close.
It seems to be a different kind of error.
Thanks,
Paul
Hi Paul,
Just wanted to leave you the upload link on this thread as well.
Thanks!
Paul worded it well, this is exactly the behaviour that is going on.
Peter, do you expect anything to be uploaded so you can look deeper into it? In that case I will upload an anonymized version of the .story that I am having trouble with.
I uploaded my story file and they are looking at it. There is a note
http://www.articulate.com/support/kb_article.php?product=st1&id=7na7t7t45k1z
that the connect to server errors seem to happen when the server rejects the data, and one of my testers managed to submit successfully but the test did not include 2 questions, so I am looking at it carefully and making sure there are no illegal or unicode characters in my assessment. I have even heard that the typeface used for quiz elements may have an effect.
On to some experiments today!
FYI I have found that I cannot get a completion status from the iPad Mobile Player using SCORM Cloud with even a 3 question course with either a graded result slide or even a slides viewed tracking mechanism. Something is majorly wrong! The slides and questions are all in the default template and player, no styling, features, anything. What can be the problem be? The strange thing to me is that one of my testers did manage to get a completion from the iPad on one try, but somehow it omitted the results of 2 questions.
Paul, your efforts are appreciated. I also noticed that I couldn't get a completed status in Scorm Cloud but I didn't pay much attention to that. The errors in the app were more pressing.
One of the young guys here has some knowledge of HTTP traffic and I coaxed him into using a sniffer to check out the low-level traffic between the app and Scorm Cloud. This is all magic to me but he says it might give an indication of what kind of server requests cause the trouble.
I did see the earlier article on data being rejected by the LRS; but I think it's poor error handling if the app crashes back to the library page because of this. I just can't show this to a client with all these errors flying around.
Glad I'm not the only one with this issue. Let's keep each other posted via this thread.
I am thinking that the problem is in how the Articulate Online player is passing data to ScormCloud. Because I have also found that if I access the same course from my PC the resume function works and it completes from the browser, so I think it is not the tincan statements themselves, but how they are sent from the Articulate Mobile Player. I am not sure how to to use a sniffer on the iPad to monitor what the player is doing.
I really don't want to have to deliver my content to iPads using the browser, there would be a whole new set of issues to manage...
I too am 'relieved' that it is not just me, but I'd certainly want to find out if anyone has had success with this. One time, one of my testers did manage to get a completion on the iPad, although it did not send all of the interaction data. So I am hoping that this can be made to work. The mobile player does work correctly with Articulate Online, but my client has other non articulate content so we need to use SCORM Cloud. I wonder if there are any other LMS systems that work with Tin Can and the Articulate Mobile player.
For me I don't see any statements coming out of the Mobile Player, no errors, it plays through well. Just no statements going out to LRS.
I checked this issue
http://www.articulate.com/support/kb_article.php?product=st1&id=ivuori232id4
And I have the latest version without any resolution.
Hi Pankaj,
And your LRS definitely support the Tin Can API? Have you had a chance to test your course in SCORM Cloud?
Peter,
Does this mean that the new player update will allow users to submit graded result slides on the iPad? I have not yet had a chance to test it.
Thanks,
Paul
Hi Paul,
I think the update you're waiting for will be in the forthcoming Storyline update. Here are the main issues addressed in the latest Mobile Player update:
Did we find a fix for this? I am getting the same error here - using Scorm Cloud and Tin Can tracing from Storyline. The ipad app just doesnt seem to work - "Unable to connect to the server".
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Kind Regards,
Syed
Hi Syed and welcome to Heroes!
That error message is likely the cause of no internet connection, or a problem with the LMS rejecting the data. We're happy to test your file as well if you can share the .story file here with us or send it to our Support team.
HI,
I am getting the same error message on our internal LMS did anyone find a resolution for this?
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Many Thanks
Neil Chandarana
Hi Neil! I see where you have an open case with us (#00357607 for my reference) and that you have been working with our support team. Your issue has been brought to the attention of our QA Team and we will update when we can. Thanks for your patience.
Hi Leslie,
Thanks for this, do we have any idea when this update will be or any timelines.
This is a major concern for us do the QA team have any ideas we can try.
Please let me know hen you can.
Many Thanks
Neil Chandarana
I do not have a time frame to offer at this time.
Hi Leslie,
Could you potentially give us a list of differences between the app 1.76 and 2.12, we need somewhere to start with regards to debugging the issue.
If you can provide a list I know our IT team would be grateful.
Please get back to me when you can.
Many Thanks
Neil Chandarana.
Hi Neil! I do not have the specs to provide that information to you, but perhaps support could assist you with that request as well. I apologize for missing one of your questions above about 'ideas we can try' and wanted to share another thread that may assist you.
Good Morning, all.
Version 2.15 of the Articulate Mobile Player has been approved by Apple and should resolve this issue. Click here for instructions on how to update the Articulate Mobile Player app.
Please let us know if you have any other trouble, and thanks for your patience!
Strangely I strike this error on the PC after I use the converter: http://converter.saltbox.com/
If I don't use the converter, I don't strike the error.
Expect your LMS is wanting Tincan version 1
Was this ever resolved? We have a module acting exactly the same. It is supposed to be 1 of 13 modules. It will run but the error box Cannot communicate with server keeps popping up. I hit retry and it continues but nothing is going to the server. The server supports TinCan so I am not sure what the issue is? Any help would be appreciated.
Just in case anyone else come across this error, we figured out a good deal of it. What's interesting about it is that the HTML5 desktop version works differently than the HTML5 mobile app version. Desktop uses /api/v1/xapi/statements/ Mobile uses /api/v1/xapi/statements (no trailing slash) To get it to work, you have to have the server changed to accept both.
This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.